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A 59-year-old (Afrikaans) teacher, left, is living in his car in a Johannesburg park after being forced out of a teaching post. He claims he was dismissed because he is white.

This is just one of several problems teachers say they face at some Johannesburg schools.

Philip du Plessis, the (white) principal at Bedfordview High School, where the white teacher also had been forced out, has also been intimidated and hired bodyguards to protect him from “certain members of his staff during meetings because he has been threatened and physically attacked, allegedly by SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) members,’ according to independent investigations carried out by The Star journalist.

Collapsed at school from stress:

The principal, Philip du Plessis, would not comment to the Star, but it has independently been verified by The Star that he has been threatened, attacked, and this week collapsed at school because of the stress.

Power struggles at schools are not unique to this school and are being experienced by others around greater Joburg.

Threats: “the whites’ days are numbered at schools…’

Other problems identified by The Star include allegations by subject consultants who work at various schools who say they have seen principals bring bodyguards to meetings and one whose office is locked with security gates so that nobody can get to him.

"A principal even found listening devices in his office... There is not a doubt in my mind that principals are under siege," the consultant said.

Another principal has a R1.5 million defamation case against Sadtu for all the allegations that are being made against him. Since the papers suing the union have been delivered, the threats have got worse.

One principal at a school in Boksburg/Ekurhuleni received sms-es every day over a week from a number he did not recognise.

The SMSes read:

WARNING breakins at school. YOU are next then your staff. Be warned watch your back

We know you not at school today and we will get you tomorrow. We know your every move

Are you scared?

Tomorrow is YOUR day

The whites ‘ days are numbered at school…

“Not race-based’ claims department:

The Gauteng Department of Education has denied the problem at Bedfordview was race-based. Instead, said Sadtu's Ronald Nyathi, “said some white principals opposed transformation”. He said former Model C schools (with primarily white pupils) were "becoming 100 percent black" and “white principals were not happy with this."

“What we have observed is that white principals have a general reluctance towards affirmative action. Teachers see them as racist, and a white principal cannot work with black teachers."

He said he was not aware of any ‘intimidation” at that school.

Lots of days I don’t have any food, said ousted teacher:

The Department of Education memorandum, seen by The Star, listed 63 problems identified by teachers at the Bedfordview school. Many of them even ‘accused the principal of stealing school funds.’ The ousted teacher has been living in his car for five months, after a contract job he had for many years was discontinued.

"There are lots of days when I don't have any food. I'm so emotional about this," the teacher said

SADTU-affiliated teachers said they don’t want white teachers at the school:

This teacher was one of two who were forced to leave the school. On his first day at the school, a staff meeting was held and the deputy principal made an objection to the posts. "At the meeting, Sadtu-affiliated teachers openly said they did not want white teachers at the school," he told The Star.

A parent said the school was being run by the(black) deputy principal Thomas Mhlanga -- who had said many times that he was supposed to have been appointed as principal. The parent alleges she was threatened by him.

The deputy, Thomas Mhlanga, said “there were no problems at the school and that everything was exaggerated”

MEC says safety no issueGauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy has been travelling around the province to meet principals in recent weeks. She said that at these meetings, only one principal had raised the issue of his personal safety, and this was at the Afrikaans-language Die Burger High School in Johannesburg.

The MEC said that at Die Burger and Senaoane High, the department instituted investigations into alleged assaults of the principals.

At Senaoane High, three teachers have been suspended pending departmental disciplinary processes. Assault cases have also been opened.

In the case of Die Burger, the investigation is continuing because the principal has been unable to identify any assailants. Creecy said the department was implementing a five-year strategic plan that places principals at the centre of the development of effective schools. With regard to Bedfordview High, Creecy said their investigations had shown there was “no racism involved in the dismissal of the teachers”. She said the principal “had not consulted the school governing body regarding the appointments, and the SGB was now correcting this. The issues at Bedfordview High are not race related, but are about non-compliance with appointment procedures and processes," she said.

Meanwhile, the SA Council for Educators has expressed dismay over violence, both physical and psychological, against teachers.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on September 04, 2009

With Afrikaners increasingly impoverished, Afrikaans students and pupils also face enmity when they try to get educated in their own language in the public educational facilities, with the ANC-government rapidly closing down and barring Afrikaans-language education in public facilities:

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What is Genocide?

IMPORTANT NOTICE

October 20 2017

Please note that my site with the PAST SEVEN YEARS' information on atrocities against white South Africas, was hacked away. It used to be on https://www.censorbugbear.org. I apologize that this information is no longer available online. Anyone needing information about specific cases please email me at a.j.stuijt@knid.nl

For a name-list of murdered white farmers, - smallholders and their family and workers in South Africa, up to April 2011, view:

and for reports of human-rights violations against South African minorities, including whites, after 2011 see: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.nl

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '